Common Sense Backs CEO After Arrest in Prostitution Sting

Common Sense Investment Management LLC Founder James A. Bisenius is seen in this police handout photo provided to the media on Wednesday, September 4, 2013. Source: Washington County Sheriff's Office via Bloomberg

Sept. 4 (Bloomberg) -- Common Sense Investment Management
LLC, a $2.9 billion investor in hedge funds, said founder James
A. Bisenius will continue to run the firm after he was arrested
in a prostitution sting last week.

Bisenius, 62, was among nine people charged on Aug. 29 in
Tigard, Oregon, Jim Wolf, a spokesman for the city’s police
department said today by phone. Police had placed online
advertisements that day for paid sex, waited for the accused to
show up at a hotel in Tigard and arrested Bisenius in the
evening, he said.

“The firm’s partners have decided that Jim will remain in
his role as chief executive officer and chief investment officer
and he will deal with this recent event as the personal matter
that it is,” Dean Derrah, president of Common Sense, said in an
e-mailed statement today. “Jim Bisenius’ recent personal
transgression bears no reflection on this outstanding team of
professionals or the quality of portfolio management at CSIM.”

Common Sense, based in Portland, Oregon and started by
Bisenius in 1991, puts money in hedge funds on behalf of clients
including pension funds. Clients include the Oklahoma Municipal
Retirement Fund, Cincinnati Retirement System and the Wisconsin
Province of the Society of Jesus, according to a marketing
presentation dated July 31.

Bisenius didn’t answer calls to his mobile and home phones.
A spokeswoman for Common Sense declined to comment on the arrest
beyond the firm’s statement.

Maximum Term

Bisenius was charged with a class A misdemeanor that
carries a maximum prison term of one year and a fine of as much
as $5,000, Wolf said.

Bisenius and Janet L. Bisenius control more than 65 percent
of Common Sense. Its oldest fund, the $1 billion Common Sense
Partners, lost less than 0.1 percent this year through July,
according to the marketing documents. Funds that invest in
equity funds gained 6.2 percent, according to the Bloomberg
Active Indices for Funds.

The firm’s $1.8 billion Common Sense Long Biased fund
returned 8.4 percent, compared with a return of 20 percent for
the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index.